The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and job Involvement (Case Study: The Elementary School Teachers of Tonekabon city)

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1 2014, TextRoad Publication ISSN: Journal of Applied Environmental and Biological Sciences The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and job Involvement (Case Study: The Elementary School Teachers of Tonekabon city) Seyede Tahereh Maafi Madani 1, Mohammad Hadi Asgari 2 1 M.A. of Business Management, Islamic Azad University Tonekabon, Mazandaran, Iran 2 Department of Business Management & Accounting, Tonekabon branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Mazandaran, Iran Received: April 11, 2014 Accepted: June 19, 2014 ABSTRACT This research was carried out with the purpose of study the relationship between emotional intelligence and job involvement in school teachers of TONEKABON city. Method of survey is correlation and has established population survey all school teachers of TONEKABON city in the academic year , that the frequency is 280. The sample size of 102 persons were selected according to Krejcie and Morgan Table. The research instruments including emotional intelligence questionnaire Gulman (1998) and Job Involvement Kanungo questionnaire (1982), that the validity questionnaires was approved by faculty Supervisor and advisor, and the reliability questionnaires was assessed with a Cronbach's alpha (Respectivelyquestionnaires0.85 and 0.81). In order to analyze the data, were used in the section of descriptive statistics, frequency, mean, standard deviation, drawing Diagram and drafting tables and in the section of inferential statistics, Pearson correlation and multiple regression. The results were: There is Positive significant relationship between emotional intelligence and job involvement, that the correlation coefficient calculated is significant in the level P <0.01 (r = 0.440, p = 0.000). Also, all components of emotional intelligence of teachers (Self Awareness, self-management, social awareness and Organizing Relations) has shown positively correlated with job involvement. KEYWORDS: emotional intelligence, job involvement, primary schools teachers. 1- INTRODUCTION From the mid-nineteenth century to the present, wide variety of studies have been carried out to determine various reasons that lead to Success of managers. These studies can be divided into three main groups. The first group includes those studies that says The success is due to the Manager and his(her) demographic characteristic (Stogdill,1948). The second group is those reviews that says success of manager depends on his behavior (Tannenbaum& Schmidt,1973);and the third group is those reviews that says the success of the manager is associated to contingency leadership style, that is appropriate with the created conditions (Firdler,1967). However, there are many questions about the success of managers in organizations, that the definitive answer is still not clear. For example: Why a Manager with a stable IQ And the successful management of an organization, is unsuccessful in others? Why some managers with high IQ, Have failed in the administration of any organization that are appointed? Why some managers with an average IQ are successful in the management and administration of the any organization that are employed? To answer these questions, the study of the factors affecting the success of managers in the management of organizations has become a continuous and permanent subject and many researchers are forced to try and rush in order to achievement a new and detailed findings. In the last decades of the twentieth century and in the third millennium, the subject that has attracted management researchers is that the IQ is not the only factor in the success and improvement of managers' performance but other factors are involved in this case that they are called emotional intelligence or emotional. Goleman (1988) believes that although IQ predetermines scientific advances and professional success but its share in these successes is less than 20%. He says that emotional intelligence is the most important characteristic to differentiate superior leaders from average leaders. Goleman presented his framework with studies in the field of emotional intelligence, which showed how an individual's ability and skill in the area of self-awareness, self-management, and social awareness and relationship regulation can be effective in improving performance. Emotional intelligence is a general term that resembles the effective performance. Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand and harnessing the emotions in order to assist to the intellectual activities, decision making and communication. Based on the Goleman (1988) findings, people with high emotional intelligence know how to control and conduct their and others' emotions. Corresponding Author: Mohammad Hadi Asgari, Department of Business Management & Accounting, Tonekabon branch, Islamic Azad University, Tonekabon, Mazandaran, Iran. 29

2 Madani and Asgari, 2014 The late twentieth century to the present, various researchers have used contrasting models of emotional intelligence that models of Bar-On (1988) and Salovey and Mayer (1990) and Goleman (1998) are famous example of it. However, there are many similarities in these models but emotional intelligence in Bar-On's model based on personality theory, and in salovey & Mayer s model based on theory of intelligence and in Goleman's model based on a theory of personality and performance has been studied. However, the concept of emotional intelligence as the ability to recognize and regulating emotions in ourselves and others are accepted and confirmed in every three of these studies. Golemanone of the named theorists in this field, states the concept of emotional intelligence as: "Emotional intelligence (EI) is the ability to identify emotions in oneself and others, motivating oneself and others and manage their own and others". He has divided main components or different dimensions of emotional intelligence into four categories as follows: 1. Self-analysis or self-consciousness 2. Self-management 3. Social Awareness 4. Organize relations Job involvement as an attitude is an important variable that helps to increase the effectiveness of the organization. The higher-level of the employee s job involvement in an organization leads to increasing the effectiveness of it. we must look realistic and comprehensive in determining the level of job involvement in order to increase it. Interest to the study of job involvement concept has been focused on defining and identifying of its determinants (Rabinowitz& Hall, 1977). According to Definition of Kanungo (1982), job involvement, reference to the degree of Individual's psychological identification with oneself job. In fact, people with high job involvement are satisfied with their jobs apparently, Show a positive mood at work and have expressed a high commitment to the organization and its partners (Carson & Bedian, 1995; Cohen, 1995). Employees with high job involvement, apparently their job are closely with a lot of identities, interests and life goals and for them is very important. Employees may be involved with their jobs in their work environment in response to the specific characteristics of environment or the job position. Also, some employees may have a set of needs, values or traits that provides the basis of involvement in job (Rabinowitz & Hall, 1977). 2- LITERATURE REVIEW In recent years, the concept of emotional intelligence has been discussed. Some people believe that emotional intelligence is one of the success factors in educational, professional and social relationships (Saatchi,2003). Watkin (2000) says that emotional intelligence will lead to improvements of career decision-making process. It appears that prominent reason for the success of some scientists and engineers, compared to others, is that this group is more pronounced in coordinating their efforts with a teamwork effectively, responsibility and leadership, ability to accept other views, convince others, cooperation and avoid conflict, correct setting of time and commitment. Goleman (1988) believes that although IQ predetermines scientific advances and professional success but its share in these successes is less than 20%. He says that emotional intelligence is the most important characteristic to differentiate superior leaders from average leaders. Goleman presented his framework with studies in the field of emotional intelligence, which showed how an individual's ability and skill in the area of self-awareness, selfmanagement, and social awareness and relationship regulation can be effective in improving performance. Emotional intelligence or social intelligence involves four skills: Self, Others, Awareness, Action; that with this combination, the fundamental components of emotional intelligence is achieved. 1. Self-consciousness (including self-assessment, self-esteem) 2. Autonomy or self-management (Including restraint and reliability, conscientious work, adaptability, motivation and initiative) 3. Social Awareness (Including empathy, organizational awareness and motivation to serve) 4. Social Skills (Including the power to influence, leadership, conflict management, relationship building and teamwork) (Boyatzis,1982) According to Definition of Kanungo (1982), job involvement, reference to the degree of Individual's psychological identification with oneself job. In fact, people with high job involvement are satisfied with their jobs apparently, Show a positive mood at work and have expressed a high commitment to the organization and its partners. Job involvement, is including how employees' perceive of their work environment and job and combining of work and private life. Low job involvement leads to alienation of work and organization, ramble or separation between life and work of employees (Hirschfeld, 2006). Individuals with high job involvement, rarely think to stop job and it is expected to work in their organization for foreseeable future (Brown, 1996).Employees with high job involvement, apparently their job are closely with a lot of identities, interests and life goals and for them is very important. Employees may be involved with their jobs in 30

3 their work environment in response to the specific characteristics of environment or the job position. Also, some employees may have a set of needs, values or traits that provides the basis of involvement in job (Rabinowitz & Hall, 1977). People with job involvement, have low levels of burnout and neurosis and higher levels of outward - oriented. Such people enjoy good physical and mental health. Job involvement is related with career resources including social support from colleagues and supervisors, performance feedback, leadership, job control, task variety, learning and development opportunities and training facilities (Hulme, 2006). 3- Previous research Pourkiani et al (2012), investigated the relationship between emotional intelligence and mental health with burnout among nurses. The results showed that there is a significant and negative relationship between emotional intelligence and burnout, and there is a significant and positive relationship between emotional intelligence and mental health, and there is a significant and negative relationship between mental health and burnout. According to the results, with the increase in emotional intelligence among hospital nurses in Kerman, will be reduced from their burnout; and those who are intellectually and mentally health, can more easily handle the stress that especially nurses face and therefore face less burnout. Research entitled the relationship between emotional intelligence with burnout and happiness among Marvdasht school administrators by Gholtash et al (2011) is done and the results showed that there is a significant and negative relationship between emotional intelligence and burnout and there is a significant and positive relationship between emotional intelligence and happiness. Two-component self-control and social skills among all the components of emotional intelligence have shown significant positive relationship with school administrators happiness. Maleki& seied Kalan (2008) examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and effectiveness of the faculty of Parsabad Islamic Azad University. The results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between the Components of emotional intelligence and effectiveness of the faculty and the three components of self-motivation, empathy and social skills among the five components of emotional intelligence, are good predictors of the effectiveness of the faculty. Zare& Anvari (2007), in investigating of the prevalence of burnout and its relation to each of the components of emotional intelligence among Tehran water agency staff, found that there is a significant inverse correlation between emotional intelligence and each of its components (except social skills) with staff s emotional analysis (one of the components of burnout). Mirhashemi et al (2008) in a study titled "The relationship between emotional intelligence and Nurses' job Involvement." began to survey of 230 nurses who were selected by multistage sampling. The 28-point scale of emotional intelligence of Bradberi and Greaves (2005) and the 10-point questionnaire of job involvement of Kanungo (1982) was used to measure two variables of Emotional Intelligence and job Involvement. The analysis showed that there is a significant correlation between Emotional Intelligence and Job Involvement of nurses and can provide a model to predict job involvement based on components of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and organizing relations). Gardener (1983) as one of the experts in psychology has played a major role in creating the theory of emotional intelligence. He refers to two type of individual intelligence in his regulatory model: Communications intelligence and Intellectual intelligence. He believes that emotional intelligence is achieved from the combination and expanding of emotion role in these both personal intelligence. Marien Yate (1997) affirms that Emotional intelligence leads to decreasing of performance in some jobs and that is when a person with high emotional intelligence will be in a job that focuses mainly on tasks. Locke (2005) believes that Emotional Intelligence is a subconscious permanent production; so the reason cannot be compatible with it (emotion). Also Paully et al (1994) emphasize the lack of distinction between conflicts with current job (job involvement) and conflicts with work in general (centrality of business). In fact, job involvement refers to the belief that the job is important and people should be involved in their work for their progress (Decarufel & Schann, 1990). Rabiniwitz& Hall (1977) by literature review of job involvement concluded that " More variance in job involvement remains without explanation". Rabiniwitz& Hall (1977) in a report, about the variables related to job involvement, recommended that the relationship of personal and situational variables with job involvement will be investigated in order to provide a more complete picture of job involvement. 4- Research hypotheses The main hypothesis is as follows: The main hypothesis: There is a relationship between teachers' emotional intelligence and their job involvement. Sub-hypotheses: Hypothesis 1: There is a relationship between the teachers' self-awareness and their job involvement. Hypothesis 2: There is a relationship between the teachers' self-management and their job involvement. 31

4 Madani and Asgari, 2014 Hypothesis 3: There is a relationship between the teachers' social Awareness and their job involvement. Hypothesis 4: There is a relationship between the teachers' Ability to organize relations and their job involvement. 5- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 5-1- Research methodology and data collection methods This study is correlational field research in which the relationship between the four independent variables (emotional intelligence and its components include: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, organizing relations) and a dependent variable (job involvement) among elementary school teachers of TONEKABON city has been studied. There are various methods to collect data; but often, one or more methods are used to collect data in the scientific study based on the type and raised demands. According to the information needed for research, the library methods and questionnaire is used to collect data accurately and efficiently. Cronbach's alpha for five variables listed below were calculated by statistical software spss to calculate the reliability of the questionnaire that are presented in the below table: X 1 = self-awareness X 2 = self-management X 3 = social Awareness X 4 = Organize relationsy= teachers job involvement Table 1.The questionnaire reliability Based on the Cronbach's alpha Self-awareness Self-management Social Awareness Organize relations teachers' job involvement X 1 X 2 X 3 X 4 Y The table above shows that Cronbach's alpha is high and close to one and this indicates that the reliability of the questionnaires is very high population and sample The population of this study is 280 teachers of TONEKABON city.the sample size of 102 patients assigned based on Morgan and Krejcietable and these were selected by simple random sampling The method used for data analysis Two forms of descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to analyze research data and testing of hypotheses; that at first, descriptive statistics were used to explaining and describing of the demographic data and inferential statistics were used to examine the research questions. Descriptive findings of this study includes the mean, standard deviation, and...; to test the hypothesis was used of statistical techniques: correlation analysis, multiple regression that for the relationship between emotional intelligence and job involvement was used of Pearson correlation and the relationship between the four components of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and organize relations)with job involvement was assessed by multiple regression method. 6- Statistical analysis and hypothesis testing 6-1- Descriptive analysis of research data Descriptive characteristics of variables are presented in Table 2. Table 2: Descriptive statistics characteristics for the studied variables (n=102) Variables mean Standard deviation job involvement self-awareness self-management social Awareness Organize relations As seen in the above table, the mean of variable of job involvement with a standard deviation of and among the components of emotional intelligence as an independent variable, the greatest mean is related to the component of organize relations64.71 with a standard deviation of and the lowest mean value is related to the component of social awareness with a standard deviation of Analytical of research data To test the research questions, the results of the correlation coefficient are considered and each of them has evaluated. 32

5 Table 3: Correlation coefficient matrix of the job involvement variable and predictor variables Variables job involvement **.255 **.255 **.465 **.561 predictor variables: 1- self-awareness - **.823 **.650 ** self-management - **.597 ** social Awareness - ** Organize relations - *P<0.05, ** P<0.01 To determine the best predictors of job involvement among predictor variables, are used of regression with simultaneous methods and partial correlation that the results are presented in Table 4. Table 4: multiple correlation coefficients and squared of multiple correlation of the components of Emotional Intelligence to predict job involvement criterion variable job involvement Predict variable self-awareness, selfmanagement, social Awareness, Organize relations Multiple correlation coefficient Squared of multiple correlation coefficient Squared of Adjusted multiple correlation coefficient F (4.97) Significance level Based on the above table, the relationship between self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and Organize relations in predicting of job involvement is significant.(p=0.000 and F (4.97) =13.662); therefore, a linear combination of linear values is significantly related to job involvement. The multiple correlation coefficient of the sample is equal to 0.600; that indicates approximately %36 of the variance in job involvement in the sample is explained by a linear combination of values for Emotional Intelligence(R 2 =0.360). Therefore, it is concluded that the predictor variable of emotional intelligence have the power of predicting of the criterion variables of the job involvement. Thus, the regression equation is generalizable to the entire statistically population. The main hypothesis: There is a relationship between teachers' emotional intelligence and their job involvement. Based on the data in Table 3, the correlation coefficient calculated at P<0.05 level is significant (P=0.000, r=0.440) indicates that there is a significant and positive relationship between the variables of emotional intelligence and job involvement. In other words, no matter how emotional intelligence increases, job involvement also increases. Sub-hypotheses: Hypothesis 1:There is a relationship between the teachers' self-awareness and their job involvement. Based on the data in Table 3, the correlation coefficient calculated at P<0.01 level is significant (P=0.000, r=0.255) indicates that there is a significant and positive relationship between the self-awareness and job involvement. In other words, no matter how self-awareness increases, job involvement also increases. Hypothesis 2:There is a relationship between the teachers' self-management and their job involvement. Based on the data in Table 3, the correlation coefficient calculated at P<0.01 level is significant (P=0.000, r=0.255) indicates that there is a significant and positive relationship between the self-management and job involvement. In other words, no matter how self-management increases, job involvement also increases. Hypothesis 3:There is a relationship between the teachers' social Awareness and their job involvement. Based on the data in Table 3, the correlation coefficient calculated at P<0.01 level is significant (P=0.000, r=0.465) indicates that there is a significant and positive relationship between the social awareness and job involvement. In other words, no matter how social awareness increases, job involvement also increases. Hypothesis 4:There is a relationship between the teachers' Ability to organize relations and their job involvement. Based on the data in Table 3, the correlation coefficient calculated at P<0.05 level is significant (P=0.000, r=0.561) indicates that there is a significant and positive relationship between the organize relations and job involvement. In other words, no matter how organize relations increases, job involvement also increases. 7- Conclusions and findings The results show that people with high emotional intelligence, have more ability and skills in managing their emotions in dealing with the problems of living and working environment; and for this reason, they take the necessary measures against of difficulties and stress Which will lead to increased job involvement. Also, the findings of this study support the role of emotional intelligence as one of the success factors in the professional, 33

6 Madani and Asgari, 2014 educational and social relationships and their impact on management, productivity, organizational and job attitudes. Also, people who have the characteristics of self-knowledge (awareness of self-emotions), have more skills to controlling and directing life events and controlling and regulating their emotions; that have the inverse relationship with hopelessness, depression and despair. These individuals are more optimistic and hopeful toward life and are more resistant against the stress and thus are more involved with their jobs. Also, people who have the features of self-management or in other words, has the ability to avoid negative emotions such as anxiety, frustration and irritability, have less difficult in the vicissitudes of life and they return from uncomfortable position to the favorable conditions quickly. This feature is clearly seen in people with high job involvement. Empathy people are familiar with the social subtle clues and interacts that reflects the needs and desires of others. These skills enables them in the areas of educational, professional and management and helps them in their effective relationships with others. This can lead to easier and better access to sources of social support that could be a great role to play in protecting people against problems. Also the results show that whatever organizing (Controlling emotions in an appropriate manner that is created after self-analysis) be most, it leads to creating and maintaining effective relationships with others and leads to regular and harmonious interpersonal relationships. Organizing can free man from the feelings prison and do not allow to destructive emotions that leads to expelling person from their path. These individuals are able to manage their proper relations, have higher leadership ability and have the more capable of resolving interpersonal conflicts and thus are more involved with their jobs. The results of present research are consistent with results of Mirhashemi et al (2008), Haghighiet al (2012). 8- Constraints of research In Humanities research that researcher faces with human in terms of the social conditions and natural features of each man is different from other human; it cannot be claimed that the investigation is free from defects. The following are the limitations of this study Limitations under the control of the researcher - Among the schools of Mazandaran province only elementary schools of Tonekabon city is selected. - There was a time limit to answer questions Restrictions beyond the control of the researcher - Less attention in answering questions in some subjects - The lack of culture and belief in the effectiveness and usefulness of such research. - The lack of studies regarding the subject. 9- Recommendations based on research findings 1. According to research results whatever, employees' emotional intelligence increases job involvement will increase. Therefore, specific courses within workshops should be held in order to increase personnel s' emotional intelligence. 2. It is Recommends that organizations employ managers and employees with high emotional intelligence and are also looking for ways to increase the emotional intelligence of their current managers and employees. 3. High job involvement leading to increased precious resources of organization such as time and money. Therefore, managers can use of industrial and organizational experts' consulting in their sub-agencies and if it is possible establish the same as for regular measurement of job involvement among their employees. 10- Suggestions for Future Research 1. In the present study, only the relationship between emotional intelligence and job involvement has been studied; however, other important variables such as age, work experience, marital status, optimism, social support, locus of control, lifestyle, economic-social status can also be associated with job involvement; so it is recommended that research be done in this area. 2. Present study has been conducted on teachers; and since the job involvement is affected in all matters relating to employment, culture and organizational climate, leadership style, etc., and these factors vary from organization to organization, therefore, caution in generalizing the results to other organizations. 3. It is recommends that this research be done with any other questions. 4. It is recommended that this survey be done in the broader community. REFERENCES [1] Bar- On, R. (1988): The develope of an operational concept of psychological well- being- UN published doctoral dissertation, Rhodes University, South Africa. [2] Carson, K. D., Carson, P.P., and Bedeian, A.G. (1995). Development and construct validation of a career entrenchment measure. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 88,

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